


War and Cheesecake

by shadowolfhunter



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: M/M, wooing with cheesecake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-12
Packaged: 2018-07-23 00:31:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7459599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowolfhunter/pseuds/shadowolfhunter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First there's war... then there's cheesecake.</p><p>Or Nick decides to tempt the devil...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. War

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JollyCat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JollyCat/gifts), [Corvus_Aconitum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvus_Aconitum/gifts).



> In honour of the fact that despite my love of gaming... I truly suck at it. Desmond once spent nearly eleven months swimming around in the basement, because he kept falling off (Assassin's Creed). Anyway, I was recalling this inauspicious event for true comedic effect, and this little ditty sprang into my mind. Since wet Nick and wet Sean bring such deliciously inappropriate images into my mind, I had to round them off with some sweet (ahem) fluff. Thank you YouTube. And thank you Sasha... I don't think I have ever heard the word "cheesecake" uttered with such longing... my imagination ran riot.

Sean Renard sits on the cross beam, as far away from his unconscious Grimm as he can get without falling in the water again. Twice was more than enough.

The fight was supposed to finally thrash it out between them. Let Nick wale on him for a bit, fight back, but not enough to really hurt Nick, a bit of give, a bit of take and there you were.

Or that’s the theory anyway.

To bad it hasn’t gone like that. Nick is out cold on the wider part of the ledge Sean has managed to drag him onto, Sean’s sitting on the narrow part, holding his right hand. He’s got his handkerchief wrapped around it, covering the cut on his palm. It’s shallow, but long and it hurts like hell, and Sean is hunched over, shivering with cold and miserable.

When the ground gave way beneath them and they fell into this deep, water-filled chamber, Sean was seriously winded, and Nick was knocked out cold. Whatever the state of Sean and Nick’s relationship, Sean was not going to let his Grimm drown, but trenchcoat and jacket were weighing him down. So Sean dumped them.

Now he’s cold, his hand hurts, Nick hates him and Sean doubts he’s ever felt more miserable and wrecked in his life.

 

Nick comes to, slowly. His head hurts, and he’s not so far gone that he’s forgotten he was kicking Sean Renard’s ass. Which was something of a surprise. The part where it was a pleasure Nick affects not to notice.

Nick opens his eyes. And looks down. He seems to be in one piece. And Sean Renard is sitting about five feet away, looking beat up and out of sorts. He’s got his right elbow propped on his knee, there’s a bloodstained handkerchief wrapped around his right hand and he’s cradling it with his left. Nick can’t remember the last time he saw his Captain so careworn and grumpy.

He looks at how miserable the Captain is, and despite everything Nick still thinks of Renard as his Captain, and the angry corner of Nick’s brain thinks, good. The compassionate part wants to go and comfort him. Which is crazy and very irrational, and Nick thinks he should be well and truly over his little man-crush by now. Especially as he knows Renard’s a zauberbiest, and the shit that he’s pulled to get himself elected as Mayor.

Since they are both in this mess, and Nick cannot exactly lay there and await developments, he pulls himself together with an effort.

“Hey.” He sits up and glares at Sean, who gives him the side-eye and shrugs a shoulder. Nick scowls and makes a fairly rude gesture. “Are you going to sit there and pout or try and help get us out of this mess.”

Sean digs in his pocket, awkwardly, he’s right-handed and pulling his cell out with his left hand is a very difficult angle. “Soaked through. Even if we had a signal,” he makes a rude gesture towards the hole which they fell through. “which I am guessing we don’t.” He gives Nick a considering glare, “and before you try, the hole is too far to reach….I tried.”

Nick pulls out his own cell, it’s dead, which isn’t a surprise. His little torch on the other hand, isn’t dead which is quite a surprise, as it has the habit of dying regularly when Nick desperately needs it not to.

There’s not much light coming from the hole they made, Nick glances at his watch, it’s late and it’s going to be dark soon, no one knows where they are, and Nick’s pretty sure no one is going to come looking either.  
So it’s up to him, and Renard, to get themselves back to civilisation.

He levers himself to his feet, his head aches, and the room spins a little. But his vision is fine when the room stops spinning so he figures he’s not got a concussion.

Which is good to know.

Nick’s kinda had it with concussion. Sean is as big a headache as he needs right now.

 

Watching Nick warily out of the corner of his eye, Sean gets to his feet. His hand has stopped bleeding, but it’s not going to take much to start it going again, and Sean has had enough of that, he’s got nothing else to stop the bleeding with, other than stripping his shirt off, and (infuriatingly) he’s suddenly found he doesn’t want to do that in front of the Grimm.

He should be over his man-crush by now.

 

Renard appears to be sulking, which annoys Nick no end. It’s not as though Nick is in the wrong here, Renard is the one who joined the other side. In lieu of something to say, Nick casts his torch around the chamber they have fallen into.

It’s some sort of cave, looks like it might have been some sort of mine at some time, Nick has no idea what kind though, they seem to have fallen through the exact centre of the giant chamber in which they find themselves. There is some sort of wooden structure which appears to be supporting the ceiling, at least partly, and Nick finds a dark hole in the far corner.

They are going to have to find a way to traverse the wooden pilings and ledges to get to the other side. Nick thinks it’s going to be tricky, but possible, and without waiting for Renard to catch on, he starts off.

 

Of course the Grimm just heads off, leaving Sean behind, which is typical of him, and annoys Sean no end. His irritation is not helped by Nick Burkhardt apparently finding the scrambling about a lot easier than Sean does.

Despite his longer legs, and superior reach, Sean is heavier than Nick, a little older and possibly (he admits to himself) a bit less flexible, and his expensive leather Oxford brogues are emphatically not suited to making tracks like a mountain goat. Unlike Nick’s heavy, serviceable, but scarcely attractive work boots.

Sean slips. For a few agonising seconds his full weight rests on his right hand. Sean yelps in pain. He scrabbles and manages to gain purchase, and his left hand grabs hold of the beam, but the damage is done. He can feel the blood welling up, dripping down his sleeve.

“Sean?” Nick’s tone is uncertain, and Sean thinks he can hear just the smallest hint of concern. But Nick can’t be concerned.

“It’s nothing.” Sean tries to keep his tone completely flat.

 

Nick knows it is not, nothing. For a second, in the light of his torch, he saw real pain on Sean’s face. The zauberbiest went as white as a sheet. But short of calling Sean a liar and grabbing his arm to take a closer look, there really wasn’t much Nick could do.

 

It’s going to be the ruin of another shirt. But what is one more shirt ruined as a direct cause of Sean’s contact with the Grimm?

When they reach a ledge, Sean pulls his shirt tails out of his pants, and rips off a piece. Wraps it as tightly as he can around the handkerchief, knots it using his teeth to pull it tight…

“Need any help?” Nick’s tone is mild, but Sean can’t quite get past the fact that the Grimm wants to kick his ass.

“No.”

Nick keeps his irritation to himself. Sean’s being an ass, but then Nick was handing his ass to him, so he supposes it is understandable.

“Come on then.” Nick shimmies to the end of the new platform and eyes the gap to the next. The very last thing he wants to do is fall in the water again, because he suspects if he does, he is going to have to begin back at the platform that they left, two platforms ago, and that would just be about the limit of his tolerance.

He steps to the edge of the platform, there’s a beam overhanging the edge, and he launches himself upwards, grabs hold of the beam and hand over hands it to the new, higher platform.

“Easy.” He turns around, smile of triumph in place, Sean doesn’t even have as far to jump; just in time to see Sean fall into the water.

“SEAN!” Nick lunges forward, as though trying to grab the larger man, but it’s all too late, and he barely avoids falling into the water himself.

He peers down, flashes the torch. “Are you alright?”

There’s a pregnant pause. “Yeah…” Which patently is not the truth, Nick’s glimpse of Sean’s face as he turns to swim back to their starting point, tells him the zauberbiest is in some pain, and the fall did not help.

 

Swimming is awkward, Sean struck something in the water, and he’s fairly certain from the way his side is pulling, that he has at least cracked a rib. His hand hurts, and even though he’s a durable Wesen, he’s been through a lot today and it has all taken its toll.

Hauling himself out of the water and on to the ledge, and then the platform takes a lot more effort than it did a couple of hours ago, and he knows he’s in trouble.

The very last thing he’s going to do is admit this to the man who maybe still wants to kill him.

 

Nick is surprised how long it takes Sean to get back to the platform again. The older man is strong and fit, but he’s moving slowly, as though there’s more wrong than just his hand, and Nick finds it a little confusing the wave of sympathy that hits him.

Renard’s his enemy. Yet he finds himself leaning forward to grab at Sean when the zauberbiest wearily manages to grab the beam on the third try. Nick watches as Sean struggles to make the three or four feet to the shelf. When he lands shakily on the platform edge, Nick knows for certain that he’s carrying another injury, but before he can say something or step forward to help, the older man puts distance between them again.

Nick sighs… it’s going to be a long night.


	2. Cheesecake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick has an idea and follows through...

Nick unlocks his front door deep in thought. It’s very late, or early depending on how you look at it, but it took them a very long time to find a way out.

It was near two in the morning when they finally made it out to fresh air. 

By then, Nick had some serious cause for concern.

By the failing light of his torch he studied his enemy. Sean was white-faced, shivering and his usual bold confident stride was stumbling and unsure. Nick tried to get closer, but the big man was having none of it. Short of jumping him, and bringing him down, there was no way Nick was going to be allowed to help.

So he drove home. Deep in thought.

It’s almost dawn, and for some very strange reason Nick doesn’t feel even slightly tired. He’s faced some long odds before, and these are certainly the longest. And oddest.

He pulls open the fridge door and studies the contents. Hmmmm.

He’s actually got everything he needs, and he’s sure he’s got a recipe somewhere. Even if he hasn’t that’s what the internet is for, right?

Nick smiles to himself and starts pulling things out of the fridge and the cupboard.

With his heart full of hope and maybe just a smidgeon of cunning, and his head full of clichés, he starts to put together his creation.

 

Adalind descends the stairs, she’s sure she heard Nick come home but he never made an appearance upstairs, and she’s curious.

With just a little trepidation she enters the kitchen.

There are four tins spread out across the work top, and Nick is spooning something into them.

“What on earth are you doing?” Adalind stares at the mess, “I am not doing all the washing up.”

Nick’s quick, nervous grin tells her something she’s fairly certain she doesn’t want to know. Surely they are over their mutual and ill-concealed man-crush by now?

Adalind’s guardian angel is working overtime because she doesn’t mention Sean sleeping with her mother, but it is a close-run thing.

“Nick?”

“Cheesecake!” Nick looks flushed with triumph as though he’s found another bunch of keys.

“I can see cheesecake, but why?” It’s early, Adalind does actually want this spelled out for her, she’s more than a little confused and some clarification would be good.

“Well, I was thinking and we don’t have to have Sean as an enemy, if I could woo him away from Black Claw, he would be a really valuable asset, and he’s Diana’s father and…”

“Nick, you’re babbling.”

“Sean loves cheesecake.”

Adalind waves a hand in a circular motion, “… and you think if you make him cheesecake you can woo him back to the path of virtue…” She shakes her head slowly in disbelief.

Nick starts to spread the cheese part on the biscuit bases. “Er…” he shrugs, spatula in hand, there’s a little smudge of cheesy filling on his cheek, Adalind resists the urge to find that cute. Or the cheesecake making, or Nick’s curious desire to woo the Captain with cheesecake.

“Yeah. I guess!”

He is out of his mind. But Adalind can see the method in his madness, sort of.

“Fine.” She holds her hands up, “but leave me out of this.” Having little doubt that he would.

 

Nick surveys his completed cheesecakes, and debates which one is the best. The one with the white chocolate buttons and the fresh raspberries looks the prettiest. He finds a large tupperware and puts the cheesecake in it. Now to get cleaned up and dressed. He has a date with a grumpy zauberbiest and fate… or cheesecake.

 

Sean is exhausted when he finally reaches home. He’s cold, still damp, dirty, his hand hurts like hell, and worst of all he’s starting to sneeze. Which hurts like fuck.

He drops his cold, wet and filthy clothing on the floor. It’s not like any of it’s retrievable. He dumps his phone along with his clothes and shivers his way up the stairs. The shower is piping hot, but Sean is still shivering. He cleans his hand as best he can with his own first aid kit, climbs into a pair of sleep pants and crawls into bed. Maybe if he lies still…

The sneeze is volcanic and shakes the bed, Sean’s yelp of pain and surprise swiftly cuts off, and he wraps his arms tight around one of his pillows, because damn.

 

Nick parks in Renard’s second space, and notices that all is not well with the zauberbiest. Two of the wheels on Sean’s truck are in the flower bed, and Sean’s house keys are still in the front door.

Nick doesn’t knock. He uses the keys. Dammit, Sean obviously needs help, and Nick is going to out-stubborn the zauberbiest or die trying…. Figure of speech, figure of speech.

He sets his cheesecake down on the kitchen island, sidesteps the pile of dirty clothing, and heads up the stairs.

 

Sean is curled up in the middle of the bed. His arms are wrapped around a pillow, his face is buried in it, and he’s shivering so hard he’s actually shaking the bed. Nick looks at the enormous bruise on Sean’s side, and the abject misery in Sean’s body language, and sits down gently.

Sean is bigger, heavier and on most days stronger, he’s also in a foul mood, or he was, but Nick doesn’t care. That feeling that’s followed him all night, hearing Sean staggering and stumbling after him, somehow that feeling has burnt all his anger away. Sean is hurting badly, and all Nick wants to do is comfort him and feed him cheesecake.

“Sean.” Nick puts his hand on Sean’s back.

The zauberbiest tenses, but doesn’t move away or throw Nick’s hand off. Nick takes that as a good sign. “Let me help you.” He says softly, keeping his voice low with a tone he hopes Sean will find reassuring.

Sean says nothing, which Nick decides he’s going to interpret as consent. Sean’s still shivering, and Nick tugs the covers up just a little bit, and his grumpy zauberbiest makes a noise which Nick is happy to interpret as a kind of pleased sound.

It’s a bit like dealing with a fractious animal, and Nick’s had plenty of practice with those. He makes sure Sean is about as comfortable as he’s going to be without hot food and drugs inside him and that the covers are helping to warm him up, and goes in search of soup and painkillers. And, if Sean is feeling up to it, a slice of that cheesecake.

By the time Nick returns with a laden tray, painkillers, and a large box of tissues, Sean has relaxed a little.

 

At some level, Sean has always known that his achilles heel is Nick. Has always known that his emotions, in so far as Sean recognises he has emotions, have always been about Nick. About loving Nick. Nothing else actually compares. He’s always stepped hard on those feelings. Despite moments when he’s wanted to pull Nick into his arms and kiss him senseless.

Now Nick’s in his house, and Sean is mostly sure Nick isn’t there to kill him. And it wouldn’t matter anyway, because the way Sean feels about Nick isn’t something he can hide anymore.

 

Nick helps Sean sit up, and acknowledges that really he’s never actually wanted to kill the Captain. Kiss him senseless, yes. And what a way to go, because the Captain is gorgeous and built like a Greek god… and Nick just wants him.

Has wanted him for a long time.

His anger over Juliette, betrayal… because he wanted to be with Sean. And the turmoil in Sean’s eyes was all about Juliette.

Now he hopes he’s reading it right, that look in Sean’s beautiful green eyes, Nick smiles cautiously, watches hope slowly suffuse those beautiful eyes, and knows that he’s finally got it right. Sean only left him, joined Black Claw because he thought that Nick could never be his, and that only power was left to him.

 

Later, when Nick’s kicked off his shoes, dumped all his outside clothes, down to his boxers and has climbed onto the bed; when Sean is settled in his arms, Nick leans across and picks up a plate.

“I got you something.” For a second he feels a little unsure, he’s not exactly a chef.

He brings the plate in front of Sean.

Sean stares at the slice of cheesecake in front of him, raspberry, and white chocolate, his favourite. He turns his head to look up at Nick, before looking back to the plate.

“Cheesecake.” And if there’s a slight catch in his tone, if Nick’s lips brush his temple, and if the hand holding the plate shakes just a little, neither of them notice.


End file.
